Ambassador Marketing Case Studies and How to Implement Them on Shopify
StoreHero provides growth support for a wide range of businesses on Shopify, from startups to large enterprises.
In this blog, we share StoreHero's approach to growth based on our experience supporting merchants on their growth journeys.
Today's topic is ambassadors. If you're interested in ambassador programs, read on.
StoreHero leverages its proprietary growth platform to support business growth through detailed operations that manual workflows simply can't handle, as well as the execution of a large volume of initiatives at once.
If you're struggling to increase sales on Shopify, feel free to reach out. =>Download our free service introduction materials here
Why Ambassadors Matter
First, let's define what we mean by "ambassador."
Here, an ambassador refers to someone who supports and promotes a brand or product as a genuine fan — regardless of whether they are paid to do so.
It's obvious that having many people promoting your brand is more advantageous than having just one. That's why growing your ambassador base is an important growth activity for any merchant.
What Are Ambassador Programs?
To give you a clearer picture of what ambassador programs look like in practice, here are some well-known examples.
The North Face
The North Face's ambassador program features stars of outdoor sports.
The brand highlights that athletes have proven the products' performance in demanding outdoor conditions — a powerful credibility signal for an outdoor brand.
This is a textbook ambassador marketing approach — a natural fit with the products that also strengthens the brand image.
Lululemon
Lululemon is a great example of a brand that has built a strong collaborative relationship with its ambassadors.
Lululemon's ambassadors are yoga and running instructors from around the world.
Each ambassador hosts free yoga and running events, and Lululemon supports them by sponsoring those events.
Each ambassador gets to showcase their skills as an instructor through these events, while Lululemon gains community-rooted marketing at the local level.
boohoo
boohoo is a fast fashion brand popular among teenagers, and its ambassador program is extremely popular among teenage girls.
Once accepted as an ambassador, you get invited to exclusive events and have the opportunity to become a boohoo model. Ambassadors also post on Instagram using the hashtag #queensoncampus.
Reading the blog post below gives you a real sense of just how exciting it is to become a boohoo ambassador.
How to Grow Your Ambassador Base
So, how do you actually grow your ambassador base?
The examples above are all well-known brands. When you're still building your brand recognition, recruiting ambassadors can be a challenge.
Here are several tactics we've implemented to grow ambassador bases.
Find People Already Posting About Your Products on Social Media
Start by searching for people who are already making positive posts about your brand or products on social media.
Whether someone is a good fit as an ambassador depends not just on their follower count, but also on engagement rate and how well their usual content aligns with your brand.
If someone mainly posts travel photos, asking them to be an ambassador for a children's product brand would be awkward for them and a poor fit for their followers.
Reach Out to Loyal Customers
It may sound obvious, but asking repeat customers to become ambassadors has a high acceptance rate.
They may not have large followings, but their deep knowledge of your products and genuine love for your brand make them excellent ambassadors.
You can easily identify them from the customer list in your Shopify admin.
Use Gifting to Turn Prospects into Fans
If someone isn't already posting about your products but has high engagement with their audience and a content style that fits your brand, you can send them a gift to let them experience the product first — then follow up with an ambassador invite.
Paid tools like HypeAuditor and analisa.io make it easy to analyze followers on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, saving you significant research time.
Find Community Organizers
If there are communities related to your products, that's a great opportunity. Actively participate in recurring events or online communities, contribute value, and build relationships with the organizers and key members.
Ideally, you'd have a community organizer become an ambassador, but if their position makes that difficult, sponsoring their events can be a good alternative.
Ask Physical Store Staff
If you operate physical stores, in-store staff can make great ambassadors. We've also had success working with staff at wholesale partner stores. Since store staff know the products well, they're ideal candidates.
For physical and online stores to work together, mutual customer acquisition support is key.
When this collaboration works, we've seen firsthand how it boosts sales both online and in-store. Lululemon's approach mentioned earlier is one example of this kind of online-offline integration.
Before customers decide whether to buy online or in-store, they first decide whether to buy from Brand A or Brand B — and that's the battle you need to win.
Ambassador Programs on Shopify
Of course, you can run ambassador programs on your Shopify store too. Here are a few ways to implement them.
Ambassador Pages
An ambassador page introduces individual ambassadors and features their recommended products.
Glossier, for example, has a large number of ambassador pages, each driven by the ambassador's own social media and other channels.
While a highly polished page is great, starting with something this simple is perfectly fine.
A common approach is to create a single ambassador page template in Shopify, then duplicate it for each ambassador. These can be built as Pages, or as Collections when there are many products to feature.
You can also link ambassador interview articles or collaboration videos to their respective ambassador pages.
Ambassador Discount Codes
You can issue unique discount codes to each ambassador so they can share them with their audience.
Giving each ambassador their own unique code adds a sense of exclusivity that ambassadors appreciate.
Customer Tagging and Management
By tagging customers based on which ambassador code they used to purchase, or which ambassador page they signed up for a newsletter from, you can leverage that data for CRM segmentation and ad audience lists.
For example, you can send newsletter updates related to a specific ambassador, or run ads using that ambassador's creative to the corresponding audience.
Tagging can be easily implemented using the Mechanic app.
Key Points for a Successful Ambassador Program
Finally, one thing I want to emphasize: the most important factor in a successful ambassador program is one-on-one communication with each ambassador.
Ambassadors are people. The more engaged they are with your brand, the more actively they'll contribute. Conversely, as the relationship fades, their activity decreases and the program loses its effectiveness.
The same applies to affiliate and referral programs — taking the time to explain your products thoroughly and discussing initiatives that create mutual win-win outcomes is essential.
Executing UGC Operations at Scale with StoreHero
StoreHero supports merchants who are looking to boost sales on Shopify through the thorough execution of growth initiatives.
For UGC (User Generated Content) operations, we leverage our growth platform StoreHero to enable detailed, scalable operations that manual workflows can't achieve — such as collecting reviews for high-priority products based on each product and SKU's performance and inventory data, and streamlining gifting campaigns — driving continuous, sustainable growth.
We currently offer free store diagnostics. If you have challenges with UGC utilization or growth initiatives in general, feel free to reach out. Learn more about our free store diagnosis
Summary
In this article, we introduced how to run ambassador programs on Shopify and shared some real-world examples.
Ambassador programs are important both for igniting early-stage growth when launching a store, and for amplifying the impact of various promotional activities.
We recommend designing your store with an ambassador strategy in mind from before launch — and if your store is already live, it's never too late to consider introducing one.